There won’t be many dry eyes at Hot Stove Banquet at the San Jose Elks Club on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Chuck Camuso, who passed away at age 77 Monday, was to receive the Hot Stove’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his long career as a prep baseball coach. The award will now be presented posthumously in front of a sold-out house.

What a life Camuso achieved. Anyone who watched high school football or basketball the past 50 years probably saw Camuso with a whistle in his mouth as a referee. It wasn’t just high school games Camuso refereed. He also officiated at the collegiate level, even working NBA and NFL games during strike years.

Whenever I saw Camuso getting ready to officiate a high school football game, we always did some small talk. What I liked about him as a football referee was that he stayed in control of the game, no matter how ballistic coaches would tend to get on the sideline.

Al Talboy (Palo Alto, class of ’49) first met Camuso in the ’50s when the two were refereeing high school basketball games.

“Coaches liked it when Chuck reffed their games because they knew what they were going to get,” Talboy said. “The No. 1 thing about Chuck was that he was consistent.”

Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Commissioner Tony Nunes was instrumental in bringing Camuso to the long-defunct Sunnyvale High back in 1962. Nunes was the basketball coach and athletic director at the school.

“I first met Chuck when we played fastpitch softball together,” Nunes said. “He was coaching baseball in Hayward when the baseball coach at Sunnyvale quit. I talked to our principal about hiring Chuck. He was a great baseball coach.”

Camuso coached the Jets until 1981, when the school closed. Camuso then took over the baseball program at Homestead-Cupertino, where he coached until a couple of years ago. By the time he was done, he had 602 career wins. Camuso stayed on as a teacher, making him one of the oldest teachers in California when he passed away.

“I got to know Chuck in many different ways,” Schoof said. “In each venue that I had contact with him, he was always a class guy. I played baseball against him in high school, coached against him in baseball, coached his son Ken, had him referee my basketball games when I played in high school, and watched him officiate Menlo School football games. Chuck was a first-class person who loved competition and respected the game, no matter the sport or his role as a coach, parent or referee. I have never heard a player or coach say a bad word about him. High school sports in the valley has lost a true legend.”

“Chuck was down to earth,” Talboy said. “He was an easy guy to get along with.”

Funeral services for Camuso are scheduled for Jan. 28 at Nativity Church in Menlo Park at 11 a.m.